Democratic Party Will Not Exclude Song Young-gil from Nomination... "Will Hold Primary After Additional Candidate Recruitment"

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[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] The Democratic Party of Korea has decided to hold the Seoul mayoral primary as a '100% public primary.' As a result, the exclusion of former leader Song Young-gil and lawmaker Park Ju-min, which was decided by the Strategic Nomination Management Committee, has been nullified.

On the 21st, after concluding a closed emergency committee meeting, Democratic Party senior spokesperson Ko Yong-jin told reporters, "The issue of excluding former leader Song and lawmaker Park, which was decided by the Strategic Nomination Committee and discussed at the emergency committee, has been resolved by including them without exclusion and additionally recruiting candidates until the 22nd. We decided to include them in the primary to select the candidate."

Regarding the background of this decision, he explained, "Although there is a slight lack of reflection of party members' opinions, it is considered a good method to expand to the moderate voter base and capture public sentiment. Also, holding both the party members' vote and the public primary vote would require a total of eight days, which, despite its advantages, is practically very difficult."

He added, "There was an opinion that some acceptance of the Strategic Nomination Committee's decision was necessary, but ultimately, considering the current practical issues and the competitiveness of the candidates, it was decided that it would be better not to exclude the two. Although there were emergency committee members with differing opinions, they followed this decision."

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